The wonderful pictures that adorn pages 10 & 11 in this months edition (and here on the website) are the work of local, talented photographer Charlene Cuthbertson, who, with the help of her partner Nathan run the successful Dream World photographic studio in Helsby. Offering shoots either in their spacious studio or out on location for newborns, children, family groups, couples and pets.
High quality bespoke prints can be presented in frames, wall art, gorgeous memory books (which I just love) and more - key rings etc.to enable you to show off your images exactly how you want to.
The Lil’ Cutie competition finally came to a climax last month as I and 3 other judges had the extremely difficult task of picking the winners in the 3 age groups. Believe me there was quite a debate going on at times! I was joined at the studio by Hannah from Serenity, Rebecca from The Devonshire Bakery (who provide the yummy cakes for ‘Smash the cake’ as Zach demonstrates to the left!) and Peter Smith from The Joshua Tree charity, which benefitted from the proceeds of the competition.
There were 151 fantastic entries, so competition was tough but we finally whittled it down to the top 3 places in each of the categories with Ruby winning the 1-12 months, Ashton 1-3 years and Alice was first in the 3-6 year group. The winners shared prizes with a total value of nearly £4,000! So a big congratulations to them and in the process £377.50 was raised towards the realisation of The Joshua Tree in Sandiway.
It was lovely that Nathan and Charlene chose a local charity to support, I was interested to find out more from Peter....
The seed for The Joshua Tree project was sown in 2005 when our son Joshua was diagnosed with leukaemia - the day to day routine of caring for a child with cancer meant we had to face struggles as a family, there were many things Josh wasn't allowed to do because his immune system was so weak, and it was hard to find a place where we could all spend much needed time together.
Today he is in remission and a happy kid just loving life, but we wanted to reach out to families going through difficult times, just like us.
The Joshua aims to build a holiday house and support centre for kids and families going through treatment for immuno-suppressed illnesses, such as cancer. The Holiday House will enable families to have precious time together, enjoying a short break totally free of charge. There will be a soft play area, a cinema room, a play area, private rooms, a support centre and accommodation for 4 families at any one time.
While the support centre will offer lots of advice, emotional and educational support to the entire family. The project is situated in Sandiway, Cheshire so it's close to many children's hospitals and is predicted to cost £1.9million.
